Ice Breakers: Canadiens checking prices on Top 4 defenseman, Tortorella is safe and more

Happy Friday. That means we’re back with another edition of Ice Breakers, as featured on Daily Faceoff Live, with news nuggets from around the NHL:

Habs Making Calls for Defenseman

Montreal Canadiens GM Kent Hughes has been checking prices on acquiring a top-four, right-shooting defenseman around the league. The cost? It’s high, meaning nothing is imminent now.

The Canadiens’ backend has stumbled out of the gate in a year in which they were expected to take a step forward, with injuries also serving as a critical factor. Kaiden Guhle has missed time and Mike Matheson has been playing through back spasms, hoping to stabilize the defense.

Montreal recognizes the current situation is not ideal: With the injuries, rookie defenseman Lane Hutson is averaging 23:17 per night just nine games into his career. On Oct. 17, Hutson eclipsed 30 minutes. That’s too much. And they are wary of overtaxing 34-year-old David Savard.

The only fix is to trade for more support. But that’s expensive, and with the future of the blueline well covered with David Reinbacher, Logan Mailloux and Hutson, the Habs are rightfully reticent to spend on what may be a temporary stopgap solution. At the same time, the status quo isn’t acceptable, so this is a storyline that bears watching.

Utah Hockey Club also Monitoring Defense Market

Of course, the Canadiens aren’t the only team kicking tires on the defense market. Utah Hockey Club GM Bill Armstrong continues to make his rounds in the wake of losing two top-four pieces in Sean Durzi and John Marino for at least the next four months.

For now, Utah will attempt to plug the holes with internal solutions. Towering 2022 first-round pick Maveric Lamoureux made his NHL debut on Thursday night and finished on the plus side of the ledger in a 5-1 loss to Colorado.

Also on the list to potentially get a look: fellow 2022 draft picks Artem Duda (36th overall), who took the unusual path and played at Toronto Metropolitan University last season, and Maksymilian Szuber (163rd overall), when healthy. They also have Kevin Connauton playing in AHL Tucson with NHL experience.

Nonetheless, Utah is 1-4-0 since Durzi’s injury, and they don’t want to let a solid start to the season slip away. No team can survive losing two of their top four blueliners. So, Armstrong will continue to swing big when making calls. He’s been known around the league to ask for well-established, young star players – which sometimes results in short-lived phone calls. Sometimes those inquiries also plant seeds for future conversations, and that’s how he landed Mikhail Sergachev from the Tampa Bay Lightning at June’s Draft.

Torts is Safe

’Tis the season for seat warmers – and the temperature rising on some coaching hot seats after slow starts.

One name you can cross off that list: John Tortorella in Philadelphia. He isn’t going anywhere. Tortorella has the complete and total support of the organization, despite a scuffling 1-5-1 start and apparent disagreement on the bench.

The Flyers believe Tortorella is the best possible coach to mold and teach their young roster. Plus, he has this season and next remaining on his contract at $4 million per year. They know they aren’t ready to win yet, though they expect to make significant progress this season.

Additionally, after sitting for both games this week against Washington, the Flyers are expected to make a decision on 18-year-old forward Jett Luchanko on Friday. If he isn’t in Tortorella’s lineup this weekend, they want to get him playing again, and the expectation is he’ll be sent back to the OHL for the season.

Theodore Extension Thins Pending UFA Defense Class

Major piece of business done by Vegas in locking up Shea Theodore to a seven-year extension on Thursday, just shy of $52 million. The deal includes a full ‘no-trade’ clause through the first five years of the deal and takes Theodore – one of the Top 10 offensive defensemen in the game – through his 36-year-old season.

More importantly for the Golden Knights, it solidifies a defense with Alex Pietrangelo and Noah Hanifin for the foreseeable future for less than $24 million per season. That no state-income tax advantage looms large once again – and it will look real pretty when the NHL’s salary rises well north of $100 million soon.

Those groans you heard on the Theodore extension announcement were from the rest of the NHL, with one more pending UFA taken off the table. Theodore leaves Jakob Chychrun and Aaron Ekblad as the two premier defensemen now playing out the final year of their deals. Chychrun has fit in well in Washington. And while Florida has been hard at work signing Carter Verhaeghe and Paul Maurice to extensions, the sense is it has been rather quiet on the Ekblad front so far. Perhaps another data point in a similar tax environment with Theodore might move talks along.

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